Chapter 61 Mongolia

Half an hour later, inside fortification 7025.

The seven-member team finally arrived safely at the stronghold, having successfully shaken off the Bloodsaints behind them.

Judging from the drone surveillance footage, the team's reckless and heavy firepower coverage had thoroughly terrified those Bloodsaints. After the ceasefire, no one dared to pursue them. Even when they deliberately circled the sparsely vegetated area several times, they detected no watchers lurking in the shadows.

With the crisis temporarily averted, the members finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Upon entering the fortification, Chen Jian immediately instructed Shen Yue to provide further treatment for Li Shi's wound, while he himself, along with Lei Jie and He Shuo, re-established the outer defensive perimeter, setting up a simple early-warning system utilizing drones on standby surveillance mode.

Only after finishing all of this did he return inside the fortification to check on the status of the team members.

The good news was that, aside from Li Shi, among the seven individuals only Zeng Yi had sustained minor injuries.

For a Bloodsaint like him, as long as the wound was properly disinfected and treated, it would generally not pose any major problems.

However, there was bad news as well.

Through this conflict, Chen Jian acutely realized the issues plaguing his team.

To sum it up in one sentence: excessive sharpness, but insufficient defense.

This time, by leveraging overwhelming firepower, electromagnetic dominance, and informational advantages, the team had managed to barely secure an upper hand.

What about next time, though?

What if luck was not on their side as it was this time? What if the artillery shell from the Machine Cult had not missed? What if the blade Zeng Yi hurled had flown off course? The outcome would have been entirely different.

In the most extreme scenario, the team might even have suffered total annihilation.

After all, they did not possess the resilient bodies of Bloodsaints, which could withstand a bullet piercing the heart and still remain full of vitality.

Their manpower was still far too scarce.

Risks could not be distributed, nor were there enough cannon fodder to absorb the brunt, leaving only a limited few to face the impact head-on.

This was by no means a wise choice, which meant that in the short term, how to expand their headcount had become the utmost priority.

---Yet, the problem lay right there.

Originally, the best source of population was Hanshui City, but that avenue had been cut off by the local administrators, with little hope of recovery in the near future.

Not only that, but they also needed to constantly guard against threats originating from Hanshui City.

After all, those religious-brainwashed lunatics would not give up so easily. Even having suffered heavy casualties, Chen Jian had every reason to believe they would continue launching intermittent harassment and attacks for some time to come.

It was truly troublesome.

Chen Jian furrowed his brows deeply, and the rest of the team shared his expression.

Yet, amidst the somewhat heavy atmosphere, no one spoke.

It wasn't until Li Shi's wound was treated and Shen Yue, naturally optimistic as he was, wiped his hands clean, dug out some hard candies stored in a sealed tin, and handed one to each person, that the members—their dopamine stimulated by the sugar—finally grew slightly more lively.

"Damn it, we nearly bit the dust at the hands of those lunatics this time."

Lei Jie let out a long breath and spoke up:

"Hanshui City is indeed not that simple, and neither are the Machine Cult and the Bloodsaint Cathedral."

"There's a reason these people have survived in the wasteland for so long. I have a feeling they must have a unique decision-making process."

"To be able to react so quickly to such an issue and rapidly organize personnel..."

"This kind of mobilization capability is genuinely absurd to a certain extent."

"Religious organizations are always like that."

Chen Jian waved a hand and said:

"Nothing special about it. We had the Yellow Turbans internally in the past, and the West had the Crusaders. Regardless of their combat prowess, their mobilization capabilities were exceptionally strong for their respective eras."

"I don't have any doubts about that. My biggest question, rather, is why they reacted so violently to the 'mimic heretic'."

"We need to find a way to obtain further information... but right now, there's no chance of openly entering the city."

"Is there any way we can alter our appearance and bypass their inspections?"

"Unlikely."

Xie Liu shook her head and replied:

"Once Hanshui City enters a state of martial law, the inspections are extremely strict."

"Not to mention strangers, even familiar merchants, travelers, or even members of the Bloodsaint Cathedral and the Machine Cult themselves undergo rigorous interrogation before entering."

"If you want to sneak in, you can only wait until the martial law is lifted."

"But I reckon that until they completely eliminate the 'threat' on our side, they will never lift the martial law."

"So there's really no way at all?"

Chen Jian could not help feeling a hint of disappointment, while Zeng Yi by his side chimed in:

"There is a way, but it depends entirely on luck."

"What way?"

Chen Jian immediately asked.

"Find the Ring Merchants."

"Ring Merchants?"

Chen Jian asked with bewilderment:

"What are those?"

Zeng Yi drew a soft breath and answered:

"It's hard for me to explain precisely what they are. In fact, no one can accurately define them."

"They are the most sensitive intelligence brokers on this land, the notorious arms dealers, a once-wealthy merchant organization, and researchers of some ancient technologies."

"They act in secret, but they are also powerful."

"Especially concerning ancient technology, some say that certain technologies currently used by the Machine Cult—particularly long-range wireless communication technology—were discovered and restored by them from ruins."

"Some say they are the third major force in this world, alongside the Machine Cult and the Bloodsaint Cathedral."

"But in reality, over the past few decades, their influence has grown increasingly weak—at least from the records I've seen, it's been a century since the Ring Merchants sold any ancient technology."

"Perhaps those technologies have been lost among them as well."

"Nowadays, they have almost entirely transformed into an intelligence organization, one obsessed with conspiracies and pinning their hopes on seizing power through those conspiracies."

"So if you want to acquire any intelligence, finding them is the most suitable option."

"The problem is... you simply cannot find them."

"They appear more frequently in certain cities, but even if you know where they are, they are very difficult to identify."

"That's why I said... it all depends on luck."

"Then let's leave it to luck."

Chen Jian nodded, bit down on the candy in his mouth, swallowed it, and then said:

"Information is important, but information is not necessarily the top priority."

"If we can't find them for now, so be it. Anyway, we can already confirm that the armed personnel inside Hanshui City are all our enemies."

"Therefore, our plan moving forward mainly consists of two points."

"First, acquire food, expand our manpower, and grow our strength."

"Second, figure out a way to deal with Hanshui City's ongoing harassment and attacks in the future."

"The former is relatively manageable; since Hanshui City is a dead end, just as Xie Liu mentioned earlier, we can look for other settlements and expand in other directions."

"Yet, the threat from Hanshui City... is truly imminent."

"We cannot constantly live in anxiety dealing with their offensives, and wanting to completely annihilate them leaves us facing the dilemma of insufficient manpower."

"This is practically a paradox, and the only solution would be..."

Chen Jian's words trailed off. The other three members of the team simultaneously glanced toward the lead-lined box in the corner. After pausing for a moment, Chen Jian continued:

"Forget it. We won't resort to that trick unless it's an absolute last resort."

"Civilians are also precious resources and can be educated. It took countless years for this population of just a few thousand to multiply; they shouldn't be squandered casually."

"If I'd known, I wouldn't have killed that Level 3 monster. If it were still alive, it could at least have served as our temporary barrier."

"As for now..."

At this point, Chen Jian could not help sighing.

Meanwhile, Xie Liu's eyes lit up, and she tentatively spoke up:

"If you put it that way... what if we find another monster?"

"Where would we find one?"

Chen Jian asked, baffled.

"The idea is nice, but the key is that there aren't any."

"Even if there were, it's unlikely we could control a new monster..."

"Not necessarily."

Zeng Yi suddenly spoke, appearing to have grasped Xie Liu's intent.

He then continued:

"Forty kilometers south of the Hanshui Ruins is Hanshui City, and seventy kilometers southeast lies Huangshi City, which has a population of nearly 2,000."

"Between Huangshi City and the Hanshui Ruins, there is a ruin called Huangzhou, where a Level 4 monster actually resides."

"This monster has lived in peace with the residents of Huangshi City for decades, and the locals even use it as a deterrent against the Level 3 monster from the Hanshui Ruins."

"If we lure this monster to the area between the Hanshui Ruins and Hanshui City... wouldn't the effect be the same?"

"Only this time, what we're blocking won't be a monster, but those enemies from Hanshui City."

"Think about it: when a Level 4 monster appears unannounced right at their doorstep, no matter what, they won't have any spare forces to target us anymore, right?"

"At least for the short term, we can gain precious time."

As Zeng Yi's voice trailed off, Chen Jian was utterly dumbfounded.

He had never imagined that not only was there a symbiotic relationship between monsters, but one could exist between humans and monsters as well!

If what Zeng Yi said was true, then it was genuinely feasible.

With that thought in mind, he hurriedly asked:

"Do you know anything about that monster? What are its traits?"

"I don't know," Zeng Yi shook his head, then added:

"But the people of Huangshi City certainly do. As far as I know, they even gave that monster a name."

"What is it called?"

Chen Jian asked.

Zeng Yi shook his head, indicating he couldn't remember, but Xie Liu beside him answered without hesitation:

"Mongolia."

"That monster is called Mongolia."